After numerous rumors and leaks, the much-hyped Motorola Moto X officially gets unveiled today. This will be the first Motorola’s phone to be produced under Google’s watch and is said to be fully assembled in the United States.

The Moto X has an edge-to-edge 4.7 inch AMOLED display with full RGB matrix and a 720 x 1280 resolution, totaling to 316 pixels per inch. Due to its curved back, the thickness varies from 5.6 to 10.4 mm. The weight is 130 grams, comparable to other phones with the same screen size.

Internally, the Moto X features a custom-made X8 system on a chip. As previously mentioned, the processing system contains a dual-core 1.7 GHz Snapdragon S4 Pro (Krait 300) CPU and a Adreno 320 GPU. In addition to the usual goodies, it also packs a contextual computing processor and a natural language processor to speed up specific workload. Memory wise, it has 2GB LPDDR2 of main system memory available and internal storage of 16 GB or 32 GB depending on price. Unlike the Google’s Nexus line of devices, the Moto X includes a microSD expansion slot for further storage space.

Motorola claims that the “clear pixel” 10 mega pixel snapper at the back is able to absorb 75 percent more light than a regular smartphone’s camera sensor. This is due to the fact that their clear pixel technology allows four sub pixels in one pixel, instead of the regular three pixels arrangement. Individual pixel size is also larger (1.4 microns) in comparison to a Samsung Galaxy S4’s (1.1 microns).

The most creative feature of the Moto X is the customization option. The front panel, back cover, side buttons and even software personalization options such as wallpaper is user customizable using their website dubbed Moto maker. Using Moto maker, user has the freedom to choose between 2 front colors, 18 back colors, as well as 7 accent colors and have the software personalized upon shipping. The extensive customization ability is made possible by having a manufacturing facility in the USA.

With the natural language co-processor on board, voice recognition functionality will always be on stand by. Google now can be activated at any time by simply saying “OK, Google now”. This feature is named the Touchless Control by Motorola. Also in the list is Quick Capture Camera, which is simply a gesture based camera activation system. Camera will be activated by twisting the wrist twice.

The Moto X will be rocking the non-latest Android 4.2.2. However, knowing that Motorola Mobility is now part of Google, software updates should come relatively quick. The battery in the Moto X has the capacity of 2200 mAh and is expected to have the 3G talk time of 13 hours and up to 24 hours of mixed daily usage.

The Moto X carries a not so pocket-friendly price tag of $199 for 16 GB and $249 for 32 GB and is available on all five largest carriers in the USA on a 2-year contract.

The display resolution and internals ultimately prevent the Motorola Moto X to be a truly high-end device. On top of that, the higher price tag of $199 per 2-year contract puts it in competition with HTC One, Samsung Galaxy S4 and iPhone 5. The battery life, Touchless Control and the endless customization options might be impressive, but are those really enough to sway the balance towards Motorola?